The excellent adventures of Alex & Jac

12,300 kilometres, 10 countries

Five months ago we had our best idea ever. Get a Landrover Defender 110 expedition truck built and knock off some classic adventures over the next couple of years. Phase one is done and 12,300 kilometres (that’s further than driving from New Zealand to Los Angeles) and 10 countries later, we are heading home to plan the next leg. We’ve left Gabby with the lads at Nene Overland at her birthplace in Peterborough to get a service and a few mods before we set off again sometime next year. We are going to miss you Gabby!

Overall the Landrover performed really well. We gave it a damn good seeing to through some pretty tough terrain in Iceland and certainly cranked up a few miles. The only thing that didn’t perform were the Terrafirma beadlock rims. While they look super-cool, they just weren’t tough enough for what we threw at them. Broke multiple bolts and cracked a couple of rims. I doubt they will be coming with us on the next leg! The only other minor issue was a sensor in the air intake that freaked out because it got a bit damp. That may have been my fault for taking Gabby for a wee swim in a river that was potentially a little too deep.. (should have packed the water-wings).

We’ve enjoyed the experience immensely and learnt a lot about overland travel. Navigation has been an interesting experience in some of the places we’ve been. Jac has done a sterling job of not getting us lost! Two GPS’s and multiple maps is the trick to getting things right.

So we are signing off for a bit now, I’ll keep you up to date over the coming months as we plan the next leg; which will be pretty complex with multiple visa’s and the Carnet de Passages en Douane for Gabby. Thanks for reading about our adventures, I hope you enjoyed reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing it!